A
healthy wild rabbit on the left and an infected pet rabbit on the
right.

The disease myxomatosis in
rabbits is caused by a virus. The virus is a type of pox virus
which grows best in the skin of rabbits.The very first signs we
can see are puffy, fluid swellings around the head and face.
'sleepy eyes' are a classic sign along with swollen lips, tiny
swellings on the insides of the ear and puffy swellings around
the anus and genitalia. Within a day or so, these swellings can
become so severe as to cause blindness and there may become some
distortion around the face, mouth, ears and nose.

A major insect parasite which transmits the disease in this
country is the rabbit flea. Although this has never been proved,
there is strong circumstantial evidence that mosquitoes transmit
Myxomatosis in the United Kingdom. Myxomatosis virus can remain
alive in the blood of fleas for many months and it is probably by
over wintering of fleas in rabbit burrows the disease is
transmitted from year to year.

As the mosquito or flea bites the rabbit a small amount of the
live virus is placed in the skin of the rabbit as the insect
sucks blood. Within a few days the virus is transmitted to a
local lymph node and then passes into the blood of the rabbit
which enables it to be moved around to several sites. The virus
mainly multiples in the skin around the eyes, the nose, the face,
the soft skin inside the ears and also the skin around the anus
and genitals of the rabbit.

The incubation period varies slightly from one animal to
another but can be as short as five days and as long as fourteen
days. Some animals may survive for weeks or months after
infection but, in general, if the infection is severe in a
susceptible rabbit, death occurs within twelve days.

Within a short space of time, affected rabbits become blind
because of the swelling around the eyes and for this reason
feeding and drinking is often difficult. However, one can
sometimes see wild rabbits suffering from Myxomatosis quietly
grazing. Of course, at this stage many rabbits become prey to
animals such as foxes and other predators. Other rabbits may well
become injured or killed on roads but the common cause of death
is a secondary lung infection which often occurs around day eight
after the initial incubation of the disease.

Not all affected rabbits die. Although recovery is rare in the
wild (probably less than 10% of wild rabbits eventually recover
from myxomatosis).

It is easy to spot
infected rabbits as they will stay out in the open in daylight,
apparently grazing happily, the real reason they are in the open
is that they are blind and are having difficulty breathing as
their lungs slowly fill with liquid.

Look for the closed and
weeping eyes.

I approach them quietly
from downwind and despatch them with a well placed head shot.

As a matter of course I
despatch all 'Myxi' infected rabbits that I find , I bag them up
and remove them from the field.